*
* *
With the girls tucked in for the night, Abby poured two
glasses of wine and went onto the porch to wait for Trace. She must have taken
longer inside than she'd realized because she found him already there, his
rocker squeaking rhythmically against the floorboards. He was staring off
toward the bay, which could be heard, but which was invisible in the inky
darkness of the night sky.
Every now and again, a firefly's glow would flicker. The sight of them always
took her straight back to childhood, when she, Connor and Kevin and later Bree
and Jess would catch as many as they could and put them in old Mason jars with
holes punched in the tops, then free them before bedtime.
"Are the girls okay?" he asked when she joined him.
"None the worse for their adventure," she said, handing him a glass.
"I, however, am still shaking." She faced him. "Thank God you
found them when you did."
"I think they would have turned around soon on their own. It would have
been dark in a few more minutes, and Caitlyn was already frightened."
Abby smiled. "Yes, but you're not taking into account that Carrie is
determined enough for both of them. She never gives in to fear."
"A scary thought," Trace said.
"You should live with it." She turned as she spoke and saw Trace
studying her intently. "What?"
"An interesting idea," he said casually. "Me living with
Carrie's daredevil nature. It would imply you and me being together."
Even though her pulse skittered crazily at the intensity in his gaze and the
offhand mention of some kind of future, she didn't want to go there. Not after
this afternoon when he'd once again dashed her hopes by saying he wanted to
stay right here in Chesapeake Shores.
"We can't, Trace. You and me." She shook her head. "It's just
not going to happen."
He frowned. "I had a hunch you were going to say that. Your reaction
earlier today when I said I like it here was pretty obvious."
"I feel as if we had this same conversation ten years ago," she said
wearily.
"No, Abby," he said with surprising heat and more than a little
bitterness. "That's just it. We never had any conversation ten years ago.
You leaped to some conclusions, made a decision that suited you and took off. I
never had a chance to chime in."
"The fact that you didn't come after me spoke volumes," she responded
defensively.
"Okay, yes, you're right. And we
have
had this conversation. I
waited too long. My bad. I lost." His gaze clashed with hers. "In the
end, we both lost."
"Yes, I suppose we did," she admitted. "But I can't regret
having Caitlyn and Carrie."
"I wouldn't expect you to." He leaned forward, turned his chair until
he was facing her. "Can we have an honest, straightforward conversation
now?"
She trembled under the heat in his gaze. "Okay."
"Something's happening between us again, Abby. All those old feelings,
they're still there, at least for me. I don't want to pretend they don't exist.
I want to figure out where they can take us."
She was shaking her head before he finished. "I don't think I can handle
that kind of complication in my life right now," she whispered.
"Everything's such a mess."
"At least let me be there for you. Lean on me. Don't shut any doors."
"And then what? I go back to New York and break your heart all over
again?"
"Possibly," he said, then reached for her hand, brought it to his
lips. "Or maybe we talk it through like the adults we are now and find a
way to make it work. We're not immature kids anymore. Surely we can find a
solution that will give us both what we want."
Even as he spoke, Abby realized how desperately she wanted it to turn out that
way. She just didn't believe it was possible. So far in her life, love had
never once led to a happy ending.
"Trace, I wish I could believe that this won't end badly," she said.
"Look out there," he ordered. "Tell me what you see."
"Where?"
"Up there in the sky."
She gazed up into the sky and saw the scattering of stars. "Stars,"
she said, taking him literally, but thinking he meant much more.
"Exactly," he said as if she'd just passed an important exam.
"You ever see that many stars at once in New York?"
She shook her head. "There are too many lights."
"Which means there must be something special about this place if we can
see so many," he told her. "Have a little faith, darlin'. Sometimes
those stars up there do align just right, and when they do, anything can
happen."
In that moment, with her hand in his and the waves rolling softly along the
shoreline in the distance, she could almost let herself believe in
happily-ever-after.
*
* *
Mick walked out of a meeting with the building and zoning
officials in San Francisco and turned to his associates. "That's it,"
he said. "I'm pulling the plug."
Jaime Alvarez, his executive assistant and a talented architect in his own
right who'd been working with Mick for months to get this latest development
off the ground, stared at him in shock. "You can't do that."
Mick laughed, oddly relieved to have made the decision. He'd never have done it
fifteen years ago, or even last year, but today it felt just right.
"I just did," he told his staff. "I'm going home."
The two other men with them were clearly stunned into silence. They turned to
Jaime, seeking clarification.
"There will be no development?" Joe Wilson asked. Joe coordinated
with all the subcontractors they hired for various jobs. "After all the
work we've put in?"
"You were in that meeting," Mick said. "They were going to keep
us jumping through hoops, dangling promises in front of us for as long as they
could drag it out. In the end, I suspect some of the permits will never be approved.
It's time to cut our losses, sell the land and move on."
"And all the subcontractors?" Joe asked, looking shaken. "What
about them?"
"They're all excellent local companies and there's plenty of work around
for them. We've kept some of them on hold for too long as it is. All the
contracts have out clauses. We'll use them, make a few payments if necessary.
They're not going to be surprised, any of them. They knew going in, probably
better than we did, that getting this development approved was a long
shot."
He turned to Jaime. "I'd like you to head up to Portland, take on that
project and see it through, unless you have some objection. It was your baby in
the first place."
Jaime's expression turned eager. "I'll manage it?"
"Unless you think you need me hanging over your shoulder and getting in
the way." He'd made this decision last night in anticipation of having
this morning's meeting go exactly as it had—nowhere.
The young architect beamed. "No, I can handle it."
"And I'll just be a phone call away if you have questions," Mick told
him. "Joe, what would you like to take on? You interested in going with
Jaime to Portland or do you want to get back home to Maryland? Dave, how about
you?"
"Let me think about that," Dave said. "We've been in this area
for a while now and I like it. I might just stick around, see what work I can
find."
Mick nodded. "You know I'd be sorry to lose you, but if you need a
reference, you can count on me giving you an excellent one. And if you do
decide to come back to Maryland, I'll put you to work back there. Up to
you."
"Thanks," Dave said.
Joe looked vaguely envious of the two other men. "Much as I'd like to
spend the time up in Portland," he said, "my wife will kill me if she
finds out I had a chance to come home and didn't grab it."
"Then you can fly back with me in the morning," Mick said.
Jaime studied him. "I thought you'd be more upset about this. You poured a
lot of work into designing this project."
"It won't go to waste," Mick told him. "With modifications, it
might suit another location."
"This is the first time in the five years I've worked with you that you
seem eager to be heading home," Jaime said.
Mick thought about the observation. "You're right. I am looking forward to
it. My daughter and grandkids are there for an extended visit. I'm looking
forward to spending time with them. They have some things going on in their
lives right now. I'll feel better if I'm close by."
"And Jess's inn will be opening soon, too, right?" Joe said.
"A couple of weeks," Mick confirmed. "I'm real proud of her.
She's worked hard to make that happen."
Of course, the opening of the inn meant Megan would be in town, too. He was
still trying to figure out how he felt about that. He was every bit as angry
about the invitation Abby had extended to his ex-wife as he'd indicated to
Abby, but there were other feelings, too. Unexpected feelings.
Megan had been out of his life for fifteen years now. It had been eight since
he'd seen her at Abby's wedding. Lord knew, he'd changed a lot in all that
time. He wondered if she had. Or if she'd still make his heart race just by
walking into a room. Damn, he hoped not. He'd been a fool for love once. At
fifty-six, it was too damn late in life to do it again.
Still, he couldn't help thinking about what the next few weeks might hold. And
whether he could get through it without adding to the pile of regrets he'd
stacked up fifteen years ago.
*
* *
The sky outside was streaked with the first orange rays of
dawn when Abby walked into the kitchen. She'd barely poured herself a cup of
coffee when the phone rang. Fearing it would wake Gram at this early hour, she
grabbed it.
"What the hell are you up to?" Wes all but shouted in her ear.
"Excuse me?"
"That barracuda of a lawyer you have has been all over my case since
yesterday, making threats and demanding paperwork she's not entitled to."
"Not entitled to, or that you don't want to give her?" Abby inquired
mildly, refusing to get drawn into the fight. Stella had warned her to stay
cool and calm if Wes called and she intended to follow that advice, no matter
how hard it was when she wanted desperately to shout right back at him.
"We settled all this when we went to court," Wes said.
"And then you or Gabrielle told our daughters that they were going to come
and live with you," she said. "Obviously you've decided that what we
agreed to no longer works for you, so I had no choice but to protect my own
interests."
Wes sucked in a breath. Clearly he hadn't expected her to find out what he was
up to.
"The girls misunderstood," he said, sounding tentative.
"Did they really? They're pretty smart," she commented. "But
let's say they did get it wrong. Why would Gabrielle have told them to keep it
a secret?"
She could practically hear his mental wheels grinding in an attempt to come up
with an explanation she would buy. She let him off the hook. "Never mind.
There's nothing you can say to make me believe Gabrielle didn't tell them
exactly that or that you didn't put the idea into their heads in the first
place."
"Okay, fine," he said testily. "I want to spend more time with
them. With you dragging them down to Maryland, I figured I needed to stand up
for
my
rights."
"Is it your rights you're worried about or your wallet?" Abby
couldn't resist asking. "If they're with you, you'll no longer be
responsible for child support. Those payments must be taking a toll now that
you've lost a lot of money with a bad investment. Were you hoping the court
would make me give
you
child support so you could bail your girlfriend
out of her financial mess?"
The silence on the other end of the line was deafening.
"Nothing to say?" she prodded. "I understand. What Gabrielle did
is pretty reprehensible. In fact, if I were you, I'd forget about a quick
wedding, because I see some jail time in her future. And if you're with her,
you can forget about custody of the girls. It will be impossible to convince a
court that you can offer a better home when you're preoccupied with your wife's
legal defense."
"You can't keep them from me," he protested.
"I don't intend to," she assured him. "You can see them whenever
you want. But forget about a change in custody. Frankly, I think you're going
to have enough on your plate with Gabrielle's defense without going to court on
any other matters."
"She'll never be charged," he said confidently. "You know how
this kind of thing gets swept under the rug. It happens all the time."
"Not when there's someone around who's willing to lift up the carpet and
show the media where all the dirt is," she said quietly. "I hate
resorting to threats, Wes, but you've left me no choice. I have to protect
Carrie and Caitlyn."
"When did you turn so vindictive?"
"The minute you decided to go behind my back and try to get full custody
of my daughters," she said heatedly, then uttered a sigh. "I'm really
sorry it's come to this. It's so unnecessary. I accepted my share of the blame
for our divorce and we both did everything we could think of to make sure the
girls wouldn't suffer. It was working. You and I had kept everything civil and
then you had to go and pull a stunt like this. Maybe Gabrielle was behind it,
or this financial disaster she's created. It doesn't really matter."
"Let's just forget this happened, forget we ever said anything to the girls,
okay? You don't know what it's like right now, Abby," he said, his tone
pleading. "Gabrielle's a wreck. Her career's about to go up in flames
unless she can find the money to fix everything. Maybe it will anyway. You
can't make it any worse, Abby. If you go public with what you know, or even
think you know, consider the fallout for the girls."
"They're five. They don't read newspapers or watch the financial
networks." She had to bite back her disgust. "And shame on you for
trying to use them to get me to back off."
"What will it take, then?"
She hadn't anticipated his capitulation coming so easily, but she was ready
just the same. "Drop your plans to try to change our custody
arrangement," she said at once. "I want it in writing that you're
foregoing all future rights to even try for full custody, and that neither you
nor Gabrielle will ever discuss this with the twins again."
"And if I give you those things, you won't try to make things worse for
Gabrielle?"
"Wes, don't you get it? That horse is so far out of the barn, it would
take a miracle to corral it. The SEC is all over this. The internal
investigators at the firm are looking at every transaction she ever handled.
The media's already caught wind of it. They might have had only enough for a very
brief item so far, but trust me, they're on top of the story. It's all going to
come out, with or without any prodding from me."
"But if you give them another angle, a personal angle, it'll make it
worse," he said. "Please, I'm begging you, don't add to the
publicity."
She was stunned by the genuine concern in his voice. "You really are in
love with her, aren't you? This wasn't just some crazy fling that wound up
costing you a fortune."
"Of course I love her. Why do you think I'm so desperate to help her fix
this? It's not about the money I lost. I can live with that. I can always make
more. I just can't bear the thought of watching Gabrielle being taken down like
this. She made a stupid mistake, and she regrets it."
"What about all the other people she hurt, the ones who lost their life
savings and unlike you don't have the time or the means to make it back?"
"We'll make restitution to every one of them. I'm already working on
it."
Abby was impressed by how hard he was willing to fight for his fiancée.
Gabrielle was giving him a chance to be her knight in shining armor, something
Abby had never needed him to be.
"Good luck with fixing this," she told him sincerely. "I hope it
works out."
"Look, I'll see Stella today. I'll explain there was a misunderstanding
and I'll sign whatever you want me to sign."
"I'll let her know everything we've discussed," Abby said.
"When…"
She knew what he wanted to ask. She could have let him squirm, but what would
be the point? She'd won not only the battle, but the war. "The girls and I
should be back in New York right after the Fourth of July. You can see them
then. If you'd rather not wait another three weeks, you're welcome to come down
here again. I just don't have time right now to bring them up there."
"I'll wait. Tell them I'll be calling every couple of days to check on
them."
"They'll love that," she told him. "They miss you as much as you
miss them."
"Bye, Abby."
"Goodbye, Wes." She'd been pacing the kitchen as they talked, but now
she sank down onto a chair, shaking. Could it really be over? Did he really no
longer pose a threat? Tears of relief were streaking down her cheeks when Gram
walked into the kitchen.
"What on earth?" she murmured, gathering Abby into her arms.
"What's happened? Is it bad news?"
Abby shook her head and managed a wobbly smile. "Good news, actually. I
won."
Gram looked confused. "Won what?"
"It's a long story, but the bottom line is that I stood up to Wes and I
won."
"Well, good for you. It's about time you stopped letting that man bully
you."
She regarded her grandmother with surprise. "You think Wes bullied
me?"
"I most certainly do. Oh, he did it with a lot of charm and sweet talk,
but there was more than one occasion when I wanted to sit him down and tell him
how a real man should treat a woman he loves."
Abby grinned at the thought of such a confrontation. "I'm surprised you
didn't do it, and a little sorry."
"Meddling in another person's marriage never leads to anything good,"
Gram said, then gave her a pointed look. "Which is something you might
want to remember when your father and Megan get here."
"Mom's not due for a couple of weeks. Have you heard from Dad? When will
he be here?"
"Later today, in fact. He's dropping the San Francisco project, so he'll
be underfoot for a while, apparently."
"He dropped it?" Abby repeated, stunned. "Any idea why?"
"He didn't say, but I'm sure he'll be happy to satisfy your curiosity once
he gets here."
"Do you think it might have something to do with the fact that Mom is
coming home?"
"I'm not going to start speculating about that and did I not suggest to
you less than two minutes ago that you should stay out of their
relationship?"
Abby smiled sheepishly. "You can't blame me for wondering at least."
Gram chuckled. "No, I suppose I can't. Now let's talk about your love
life. How are things with you and Trace?"
"Now who's meddling?" Abby teased.
"Just asking an innocent question," Gram insisted. "He was here
late last night. I heard the two of you on the porch talking long after I'd
gone to bed."
"We have a lot of things to figure out," Abby told her.
"I just hope you do that together this time," Gram said.
Abby sighed. "Trace said the same thing."
Gram gave a nod of satisfaction. "Good. That gives me hope."
"Hope for what?"
"The future," she said. "And that is all I have to say about
that."
Abby laughed. "For today," she retorted.
"Nope. That's it. The rest is up to the two of you." She winked.
"See, not meddling. That's how it's done. Take a lesson."
"I'll work on it," Abby promised. "And now I'm going to the inn
to check on Jess and the progress she made while I was away. I was so caught up
with my own issues yesterday, I never got over there. Do you mind getting the
girls up and watching them this morning?"
"Of course not. I think today I'll teach them a bit about gardening. If
nothing else, they seem to like playing in the dirt. None of the rest of you
were interested, except for Bree." She gave a rueful smile. "Of
course, she liked picking the flowers a whole lot better than she liked
planting them."
"I remember," Abby said, smiling at the memory. "She'd yank them
from the ground, then bring them in and stick them in a glass, roots and
all."
"Hopefully your sister's past that stage now. Otherwise, I'm assigning you
to keep her out of my garden when she gets here for the inn's grand
opening."
"I can't wait to see her and hear about all her success in Chicago."
Gram's expression sobered. "I'm not sure that last play of hers did that
well."
Abby frowned at the comment. "What makes you think that? She was so
excited about it."
"She usually sends the reviews, but this time she didn't. And she hasn't
brought it up once when we've talked. Those aren't good signs."
"Well, it's a good sign that she's coming home."
"It is indeed," Gram said. "I just wish Kevin were coming home
from Iraq, so we'd have everybody here."
Abby gave her a hug. "He'll be home soon, Gram. I know it."
Her grandmother touched her mouth. "From your lips to God's ear."
Amen, Abby thought.